(Eagle News) – A 60-year old Chinese woman who had travelled to Cebu and Bohol is the country’s third positive 2019-novel coronavirus case, the Department of Health announced on Wednesday, Feb. 5.
Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo said the patient tested negative for samples taken on Jan. 24 and was thus allowed to go back to China, but that they recently tested a sample taken on Jan. 23 from the patient which tested positive.
By that time, the patient had already left the country for China.
Domingo said that the woman left for China on Jan. 31 in an Air Asia flight after the validated negative test results by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) and by Australia where the Jan. 23 samples from the patient were also sent.
But he said that the department would do contact tracing for the passengers in the Cebu Pacific flight that the Chinese woman took in getting here from Wuhan, China via Hong Kong. They would also trace persons who may have had contact with the woman, including flight crew members, health workers, and hotel personnel, among others.
She arrived in Cebu City via Hong Kong on Jan. 20, “and then went directly to Bohol thereafter,” Domingo said.
Upon arrival, the patient felt unwell and stayed in her hotel.
“On Jan. 22, she consulted a private hospital after experiencing fever.. So may lagnat siya at sipon. The patient was then admitted on Jan. 22,” Domingo explained. He did not however identify the private hospital where the Chinese woman had been admitted while in Bohol.
While in the hospital, Domingo said that several samples were taken from the patient on Jan. 23 and 24. A sample taken on January 24 was tested at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory and the RITM, the results of which came back negative for nCoV.
The results from Australia arrived on Jan. 29. while that from RITM arrived on Jan. 30.
“Upon recovery, the patient was discharged and allowed to go home to China on Jan.31, nine days after the first condition,” Domingo said.
“However, on Feb. 3, the DOH was notified by RITM that the earlier sample taken Jan. 23 was positive for the 2019-nCoV,” making her the third confirmed case for the new coronavirus strain, said the health official.
Domingo said that the DOH’s Epidemiology Bureau has already initiated contact tracing of the persons whom the Chinese woman had possibly interacted with, and those who were in close proximity specially during the first leg of her trip in the country before her admission to the hospital.
“The Bureau of Quarantine and EB (Epidemiology Bureau) are coordinating with the concerned airlines, while the Central Visayas Center for Health Development is in coordination with the hotel where the patient stayed and the hospital where she was confined,” he said.
-Total PUIs in the country reach 133-
The DOH said that as of 12 noon Wednesday, Feb. 5, the cumulative total of the persons under investigation in the country has reached 133 for the 2019-nCOV.
Of this number, 115 are still admitted in various hospitals in the country, while 16 have already been discharged. Two have already died, including the second positive nCoV case who is also Chinese national from Wuhan.
Of the 133 PUIs, 63 are Filipinos, 54 are Chinese nationals, while the 16 others are persons of various nationalities, Domingo said.
Among the Filipinos are those who have recently travelled from Hong Kong, and those who were among the recent results of contact tracing. These persons may have had interactions with the two earlier nCoV-2019 positive patients — the 38-year old Chinese woman and the 44-year old man with her, who later died from severe pneumonia. Both were also from Wuhan City, the virus epicenter in China.
